Celebrity Air Learning

[Merc85]

I just learned something about Celebrity Air that I probably should have known but didn't.  Our daughter booked her flights from Richmond to Heathrow with Celebrity Air on Delta through JFK with a 2 hour and 15 minute connection.  Delta just changed the time of the flight from Richmond to JFK and now the connection is only 1 hour which she never would have booked initially given it's so short a time and it's an international flight.  The Delta website lets her get into her flights and would allow her to change to a later flight out of JFK since they had a schedule change but when she goes to do it she cannot since Celebrity booked it not her  And when she called Celebrity Air they said since it's a legal connection they won't change her to the next flight out of JFK (back to a 2 hour connection) without paying more money.
So what I learned was that if you want to control your own destiny when the airlines make a change like this you have to book with them directly.

[Jeremiah1212]

If the original arrival into the LHR is the same and the JFK connection is legal, I'm missing something to see why Delta would allow a complimentary change. It wouldn't meet any of the guidelines.

 

• A delay of 120 minutes or more
• A change in the routing of a scheduled Delta flight which adds one or more stops to the original itinerary
• A change in equipment from Delta Mainline to Delta Connection carrier
• Any change that causes a misconnect
• If a flight cancels and no comparable or acceptable routing is available within 120 minutes 

 

This isn't really a Flights by Celebrity issue. She can call Delta and see what they will do instead of trying to self serve it. 

[hcat]

Delta  changes  flight times all the time..We used to check on times every day..   But we never had a problem changing flights..as they know it is usually their fault if there's a tight connection..

 

The more hands or bots that touch any res, the more headaches one can encounter  .Hope it works out!

[Merc85]

9 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

If the original arrival into the LHR is the same and the JFK connection is legal, I'm missing something to see why Delta would allow a complimentary change. It wouldn't meet any of the guidelines.

 

• A delay of 120 minutes or more
• A change in the routing of a scheduled Delta flight which adds one or more stops to the original itinerary
• A change in equipment from Delta Mainline to Delta Connection carrier
• Any change that causes a misconnect
• If a flight cancels and no comparable or acceptable routing is available within 120 minutes 

 

This isn't really a Flights by Celebrity issue. She can call Delta and see what they will do instead of trying to self serve it. 

Delta just says she has to talk to Celebrity Air since they booked it for her.  Maybe their site wouldn't let her make the change if she was actually able to even look at it.  Thanks for the info.
Still the same learning for me about Celebrity Air.......you cannot go directly to the actual carrier since you used Celebrity Air to book the flights.

[Mr. Click]

Celebrity Air is just a travel agent.  If you book with almost any airline via a travel agent then the agent has control of the booking, not the airline so they cannot make a change.  Same thing goes for a cruise booking. Book with a TA and they have control of the reservation, you cannot to go Celebrity with any change requests or problems.

[omahabob]

Based on the experience of others, the airline takes 'ownership' of the reservation when it gets closer to the scheduled travel date, and can then make changes. I'm not sure how long that is, and obviously there's no guarantee the airline can accommodate a change, but it might be worth checking when you get closer to your travel date.

[39august]

I once had to make a change directly with Delta and did so at no charge. Thanks for the tip about the airline "owning" the reservation at some point. My guess is after final payment? At any rate, that is something I will ask FBC in the future. 

[rch3]

Dear old Delta! Our 2 hr. layover in Boston before flying to Lisbon is now 6 hrs and 5 minutes! Had the option to change but all alternative flights (using same departure point per the change rules) have virtually the same total travel time, and include 2 stops. Plotting how to make up for it in the Sky Club!!

[jelayne]

5 minutes ago, 39august said:

I once had to make a change directly with Delta and did so at no charge. Thanks for the tip about the airline "owning" the reservation at some point. My guess is after final payment? At any rate, that is something I will ask FBC in the future. 

Normally the FBC booked flights are not ticketed until after final payment and it take a few weeks after final payment.  Some airlines do no allow seat selection until the flight is ticketed, so if I have flight where I can’t select seats until ticketed I wait 3-4 days after final payment and call FBC to have them ticket the flight.  

[Jeremiah1212]

5 hours ago, Merc85 said:

Delta just says she has to talk to Celebrity Air since they booked it for her.  Maybe their site wouldn't let her make the change if she was actually able to even look at it.  Thanks for the info.
Still the same learning for me about Celebrity Air.......you cannot go directly to the actual carrier since you used Celebrity Air to book the flights.

It shouldn’t matter in this case. Delta has policies for TA booked tickets. If the schedule change meets the guidelines they will rebook. This website is probably overkill but the policies are here:

 

https://pro.delta.com/content/agency/us/en/policy-library.html

It still leaves me with the impression her ticket doesn’t qualify for a free change based on the requirements which is why they kick it back to Celebrity. If that’s not the case, I would press it with Delta not Celebrity.  

[Merc85]

50 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

It shouldn’t matter in this case. Delta has policies for TA booked tickets. If the schedule change meets the guidelines they will rebook. This website is probably overkill but the policies are here:

 

https://pro.delta.com/content/agency/us/en/policy-library.html

It still leaves me with the impression her ticket doesn’t qualify for a free change based on the requirements which is why they kick it back to Celebrity. If that’s not the case, I would press it with Delta not Celebrity.  

Thanks for the info.

[NutsAboutGolf]

7 hours ago, hcat said:

Delta  changes  flight times all the time..We used to check on times every day..   But we never had a problem changing flights..as they know it is usually their fault if there's a tight connection..

 

The more hands or bots that touch any res, the more headaches one can encounter  .Hope it works out!

 

Delta was the most on-time airline at 84%.  I say this right now from an airport lounge waiting for our United flight to stop being delayed.  Every 20 minutes, "further delay" (lol)

 

[Arizona Wildcat]

8 hours ago, Merc85 said:

I just learned something about Celebrity Air that I probably should have known but didn't.  Our daughter booked her flights from Richmond to Heathrow with Celebrity Air on Delta through JFK with a 2 hour and 15 minute connection.  Delta just changed the time of the flight from Richmond to JFK and now the connection is only 1 hour which she never would have booked initially given it's so short a time and it's an international flight.  The Delta website lets her get into her flights and would allow her to change to a later flight out of JFK since they had a schedule change but when she goes to do it she cannot since Celebrity booked it not her  And when she called Celebrity Air they said since it's a legal connection they won't change her to the next flight out of JFK (back to a 2 hour connection) without paying more money.
So what I learned was that if you want to control your own destiny when the airlines make a change like this you have to book with them directly.

Yup.

[Lastdance]

I have had a love-hate relationship with FBC, as there are so many factors involved, not to mention the individual one speaks with on the phone; sometimes you just have to hang-up and call again accessing the quality of the individual’s prior knowledge.  sometimes even asking lots of questions doesn’t = the end result wanted.🤪